50 Ways to Hex Your Lover (17 page)

“I require counsel I can find only here. I ask to be allowed to enter.” She wished she could just turn the knob and go in,
but the guardian of The Library’s door had its own rules. No playing along, no entrance.

The griffin’s beak opened in a broad yawn. “Password?”

“Hermione got better grades than Harry.”

The griffin squawked. “One day, young witch, your impertinence will be your undoing.”

“Maybe, but not today.” She waited for the metallic click and then pushed open the door that slowly swung open with the creak
of ancient wood and hardware. She stepped across the doorway aware she’d also stepped into a different realm known to no human.

Jazz stood still as the door closed behind her, leaving her in a dim hallway smelling of ages-old dust, leather, paper, and
materials that fairly screamed the magick embedded in them. As she ventured into the dim vestibule, torches adorning the wall
burst into flame, lighting her way until she reached the end of a passage that expanded into a room that seemed to go on for
miles. Rows of intricately carved shelves held ancient grimoires, books, scrolls, and parchments. Rumor had it that a portion
of Alexander’s library was back among the stacks, but she had never found it.

She knew she didn’t imagine she smelled magick in the air. It was well and truly there. Just standing there she felt as powerful
as the highest-placed witch. Not that she’d ever say the words out loud. It was a good way for her banishment to never end.

“What do you seek, young witch?”

She looked to her right, finding a man seated on a stool pushed up to a waist-high counter. He wore old-fashioned knee britches
in bottle green, a faded waistcoat over a linen shirt the color of old parchment and a bottle green long tailed coat. Ancient
scrolls, leather bound books, and what even looked like a few stone tablets were carefully arranged on the counter near his
spot of power.

Narrowed black eyes peered at her over the rim of ancient half-spectacles perched on his beaklike nose. His thinning brown
hair looked just as it had the first time she entered The Library with her class more than seven hundred years ago, when he
had lectured them in the proper use of the facilities. A lot more “don’ts” were uttered than “do’s.” Even though today she
had dressed appropriately in a black calf-length skirt and a roll-neck sweater with a silver belt for accent and black boots,
he still looked at her as if she had shown up in a micro-bikini. His rules in The Library were as prissy as he looked.

“The Librarian,” she said, knowing if she didn’t address him properly and with the correct tone of respect, he would ban her
from The Library as he had before. She had been barred from the premises for eighty years before he even deigned to hear her
apology. To say she had issues with the prissy wizard was an understatement.

His narrow lips pursed as if he had just sucked a lemon. She wouldn’t put it past him to eat the tart fruit as a treat.

“The Librarian,” he corrected her, pronouncing the first word with a long “e.”

“
Thee
Librarian,” she repeated.
Why couldn’t all
of this be available online?

He sniffed. “Proper reference material must be read in its original form.” He smiled, pleased he’d startled her with his admission
that he’d read her thoughts. “What do you wish to find here?”

Oh yeah, not going to be easy at all.

“I require information on astral projection when it is combined with other forms of magick meant to foul an object.”

He sniffed. “That is nothing new. Look over there.” He gestured to his right with a plumed pen and returned to his task, effectively
dismissing her from his mind and his presence.

Jazz shook her head. “Excuse me, The Librarian, but what I seek would be found in a section we were taught not to speak of
lightly.” She hated having to ask for formal permission, but she knew it was the only way she could cross the portal leading
to the room holding the works that had to do with baneful magick.

The Librarian looked up and peered at her over the top of his half-spectacles before he straightened up and returned to the
yellowed sheet of parchment before him. “You are not seasoned enough to enter that room. Ask me again in one thousand years.
As long as you return any borrowed material in a timely manner, that is.”

She swallowed the argument that threatened to erupt. She had known it was going to be rough. She simply hadn’t expected it
to be this bad. The man just plain didn’t like her! Yes, it was a bit late, okay, ten years late, but for Fate’s sake, she
had returned the scroll eventually. She’d signed out
Fifty Ways to Hex
Your Lover
with the intention of using every one of the hexes on Nick. She had even paid the grossly inflated overdue charges without
one word of complaint! What more could the strait-laced fossil want? Not that she was about to ask. To this day she was convinced
he deliberately inflated the late fee as punishment. She kept her voice level. “Please, The Librarian, I humbly ask your permission
to enter the room holding Baneful Magick, because I am positive what I need is in that section.” She so hated doing the MissManners
shtick, but The Librarian could give the diva of proper behavior lessons.

He looked up and stared at her with a piercing gaze. “Why would you think that what you require could be found in the room
holding baneful magick? A room that is dangerous to many and only kept intact because the material must be protected from
those who would use it for wrongdoing. If I had my way, it would have been obliterated centuries ago.”

Jazz resisted rolling her eyes. Where had this man been for the last thousand years? Like wizard guards would have stopped
any wrongdoing when people were so inventive
.
The old wizard needed broadband down here big time.

“A man who supposedly died seventy-five years ago used astral projection along with baneful magick to try to frighten me.”

His smile held absolutely no humor. “I did not think you frightened easily, young witch.”

She took that as a compliment although she wasn’t sure he meant it that way. “Normally, nothing can scare me, but right now
I’m facing something I’ve never dealt with before, and yes, he terrifies the wits out of me. This creep is using dark magick
to destroy vampires in a manner that is cruel and wrong for any preternatural being. I need to find a way to stop him.”

“That sounds more like someone performing a good deed to me,” he said. “The fewer vampires in our world the better.” He sniffed
and returned to his work.

“But it won’t end there, will it?” Jazz fired back. “And once he is through destroying vampires it would be natural for him
to feel empowered to move on to others. That’s usually what psychotic villains who want to rule the universe tend to do.”
She stared hard at him with a mental,
Get my meaning?

Jazz felt the pinpricks of magick swirl around her as The Librarian—with a long
e
—gauged the level of her sincerity. Over the centuries many a student wizard and witch had tried to gain entrance to the room
on a dare. There was nothing more appealing, and at the same time daunting, than entering a forbidden area. And a room holding
unlimited knowledge of baneful magick was about as illicit as you could get. Punishment for such a deed was not pleasant.
The few who managed to cross that threshold without permission never spoke of what they saw and found there. Even the portal
leading to that room was not for the faint of heart.

The Librarian snapped his fingers. A high-pitched sound echoed off the ceiling as a dark brown winged creature headed for
Jazz. She flinched but stood her ground. She really hated bats! If that thing attacked her hair she was outta there.

“Felix, show the young witch to Section 22F,” he instructed. “Be sure she remains on the correct path.”

“I can find it on my own if you’ll give me directions or draw a map,” Jazz said.

“That is unacceptable. Felix will guide you and remain at the portal until you are finished with your research, so that you
will have a safe return. Otherwise, it would be impossible for you to find your way back to our realm,” he said with a cold
smile.

“
Our
realm? I know The Library is housed in a different realm than the mortal world, but are you saying the portal to the Baneful
Magick room is in yet another realm?” She so did not like hearing this! Why couldn’t she be looking for books on rare herbs
or talismans? Those sections had nice plump-cushioned couches, big easy chairs, and excellent reading light. Not to mention
she heard rumors cappuccino machines had been put in some of the reading rooms. What she wouldn’t give for a high dose of
caffeine right now.

He heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Do you not recall anything from your Academy instruction on using The Library? Every section
is housed in a different realm. The portal leading to the room holding baneful magick is not only the oldest portal but also
the most difficult to find, and with good reason. After all, we cannot have just anyone stumbling upon it, can we? There could
be serious repercussions if a young witchling or wizard wandered in there, which is why I must take so many precautions.”
He picked up his plumed pen. “I suggest you follow Felix quickly. You have one hour to find what you require.” He picked up
the two-foot-high green marble hourglass that suddenly appeared on the edge of his desk and turned it over. The sand immediately
started flowing downward in an off-white stream.

Her jaw dropped. “
One hour?
There is no way I can find what I need in an hour. I’ll be lucky if it doesn’t take me all day.”

The Librarian glanced at the hourglass and at the sand drifting downward. He lifted a brow. “Fifty-nine minutes and counting.”

“You could turn it over and it would start fresh,” Jazz suggested.

He peered at her over the tops of his spectacles with a look that implied she should have remained silent. He tapped the glass.
For a moment, it looked as if the sand flowed even faster.

Jazz muttered under her breath as she took off after the bat that flew off. She slowed down once to glance through one portal.
A young woman wearing a medieval-style gown sat at a plain wooden table.

She looked up from the ancient book of spells she was studying and noted Jazz’s modern clothing before presenting her with
a smile.

Jazz had forgotten that time had no meaning in The Library. It was just as easy to run into someone from the sixteenth century
as it was to see someone from the twenty-third. The bat’s screech brought her back to the present.

“You know, in some places deep fried bat wings are considered a delicacy,” she muttered, knowing the bat’s delicate hearing
would catch the jibe. She grinned slightly when the responding sound from the creature resembled a sneer. It flew a short
distance ahead of her, leading the way.

She felt a distinct damp chill in the air as they walked deeper into the bowels of The Library. She wished she’d worn a jacket
since her sweater was proving not to be warm enough in the dank air. She crossed her arms in front of her chest in an effort
to keep warm.

“Central heat would be nice,” she muttered, glancing here and there at portals displaying ancient bound books and scrolls.
Some housed witches or wizards perusing the contents. Others were empty but the hum of magick was strong and every so often
she noticed glowing red or orange eyes peeking out of portals bathed in darkness. She didn’t want to think what type of creatures
might inhabit those areas.

She didn’t need the bat to hover about her head, its leathery wings slowing, to tell her they’d arrived at their destination.
All she had to do was look ahead at the towering shiny black volcanic-rock entrance with its silvery-black spider web criss-crossing
the entrance. She raised her head to stare at the upper left hand corner. The spider, with a bloated belly—no wonder there
didn’t appear to be any bugs around—seemed to be repairing a tear in the web. Its head swiveled around and peered at her through
blood-red eyes as if gauging what kind of meal she’d make. She resisted using a spot of witchflame on it. While she hated
spiders with a passion, she also valued her ass and she knew if she turned the portal’s spider guardian into a fireball, The
Librarian would do the same to her. She was also pretty sure he wouldn’t be banished for it either.

Felix hovered in the air, its wings flapping slowly as it directed a high-pitched squeak towards the portal. The cobweb parted
in the center and the filmy barrier lifted like a theater curtain, except there was no popcorn, Diet Coke, or even a movie
screen waiting for her.

“Maybe I should have let Nick come with me after all.” She drew in a bracing breath and stepped across the rocky threshold,
feeling a brief sense of disorientation as she crossed into another realm. Her nose wrinkled at the strong scent that enveloped
her and burned her throat. Sulfur definitely didn’t mix well with her perfume. She doubted it would blend with any scent known
to man, including
eau de
skunk. “Oh, gross! A truckload of room deodorizers would be useful here. Whoever said sulfur smelled like rotten eggs was
seriously wrong. It’s way worse than that.” She pressed the back of her hand against her nose. The urge to breathe through
her mouth was strong, but the knowledge she would then taste what she smelled kept her mouth firmly closed. Memories of old
London, where all sorts of refuse, and worse, littered the dirt roads also helped her take in shallow breaths.

The lighting in the chamber was poor with pitch-covered torches stuck in the walls at random intervals. The cavelike structure
appeared endless, with not even a broken-down couch or chair in sight, much less a three-legged stool for the casual visitor
to perch on.

“No wonder there’s only an hour time limit. That’s all anyone could stand to be in here before they pass out from the fumes,”
she murmured to herself. “And I thought Foulshadow was bad.” She cringed at the faint sound of something, or maybe somethings,
if whatever it was didn’t have many legs, skittering off in the far shadows. Jazz wasn’t a total girl when it came to creepy-crawlies,
but some sported venom-filled pincers and fangs, so she knew when to be careful and wear heavy boots. She studied the area
waiting to make sure the creatures were heading
away
from her instead of
toward
her.